


trench coat and all

by fleurmatisse



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Coda, Gen, Missing Scene, Post-Episode: s13e05 Advanced Thanatology, Spoilers, aka what the ending should've been thank you and goodnight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 18:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12688134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurmatisse/pseuds/fleurmatisse
Summary: On the other end of the line there's a pause, the hint of a breath being released. “Dean.”Dean freezes.





	trench coat and all

**Author's Note:**

> warning: it's not overtly romantic or anything, hence the gen tag  
> big thanks to my lovely friend who motivated me to get off the internet and write this instead of stewing in what-could-have-beens. we both needed a more proper reunion.

“Yeah?” Dean says. Sam yawns wide, sitting up from his slump against the window and glancing over without much interest. 

On the other end of the line there's a pause, the hint of a breath being released. “Dean.”

Dean freezes. His heart stops for the second time that day, and he can feel Sam looking at him questioningly. “Cas?”

“Yes,” Cas says, almost like a laugh. “It's me.”

Sam taps Dean on the shoulder, breaking the spell, and Dean looks over to see Sam mouth  _ Cas? What about Cas?  _ as Cas says, “I could use a ride home.”

“Where are you?” Dean asks. He wants to ask a hell of a lot more, something more along the lines of  _ how the hell are you back _ and  _ what the fuck were you thinking _ but this is a good start. Cas gives him an address that Dean relays to Sam, who puts it in his own phone, and thank god, thank whoever, that Cas is close. In the same state even. Dean doesn't want to hang up, but Cas doesn't have the change to last the whole way there. It's going to be an hour of white knuckled driving. 

“Don't move,” he says. “Not even an inch, okay, just--”

“I'll be here,” Cas says over the pay phone’s insistence to put in another quarter. “I'm not going anywhere.”

Dean will believe it when he sees it. The line drops but he keeps holding his phone, trapping it between his hand and the steering wheel. Just in case. 

“He's just back? He didn't say anything about it?” Sam asks. He's been doing his I-can't-believe-this-but-in-a-good-way scoffing every ten minutes. All Dean can do is shake his head. He's waiting to wake up. He's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like maybe it's not even Cas, it's just something playing with him, or he's still dead and this is some kind of hallucination. 

When he finally turns down the alley with the neon cross, he sees the figure silhouetted by the pay phone, just in front of it and facing away, but this little voice in the back of his head, the pounding of his heart, the way the air is getting trapped in his lungs, all of it is saying  _ it's him _ . 

He and Sam get out of the car and as Dean shuts his door the figure turns and--

It's him. 

Trench coat and all. 

Dean stares and Cas stares back and he can feel his eyes prickling and his pulse hammering but for the first time in what feels like an eternity, Dean can breathe. Cas takes a breath and there's a certain wateriness to his smile when he says, “Hello, Dean.” He looks away first, to turn his smile on Sam and add, “Hello, Sam.”

Dean crosses the street in the time it takes Sam to get out, “Hey, Cas,” and in the next second he's holding on to Cas so tightly it'd probably hurt him if he was human. Cas’ arms wrap around him immediately, holding on just as tight. Dean drops his head to Cas’ shoulder and laughs and it's a sob but he doesn't care. Cas is here. Cas is alive. He's alive and pressing his face to Dean's hair and breathing deep even though he doesn't need to. This is Dean's win, and he's not letting go. 

(Except to let Sam hug Cas, too, but...in a minute.)

**Author's Note:**

> hey, congratulations on making it through all the references to breaths and breathing. i'm proud of you.  
> i'm also on tumblr @ [hallucifern](hallucifern.tumblr.com) if you're into the whole bitter fan/untagged spoilers thing *finger guns*


End file.
